What about in the 70's and 80's when the WT touted the Book Study Groups as being all important and the life-line during the GT?
When I was growing up and in the 80's it was drilled into us that the Book Study wasn't fluf and that it would be these small groups that would be the covert meeting places to receive Spiritual Food and direction from the GB.
Another of the many "truths" that have, apparently, gone past their "sell by" dates.